Cougars Continue to Win, Now 7-0
Piedmont Academy football coach Rhett Farmer had wondered how his team would respond when challenged this season.
The Cougar head coach got his answer last Friday night as his team defeated Edmund Burke 34-14 to improve to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in Region 1-AA. As a result, Piedmont remained ranked No. 1 this week in the GISA Class AA poll by a clear margin.
“I thought our defense played very well all night,” Farmer said. “We gave up a big play to their star back but you knew he would get his yards.”
The Cougar coach was impressed with two fourth down stops his defense made. The defensive effort was a major factor in the win with the offense not having its usual big night.
“It was partly because of the competition that we didn’t do as well on offense, but also because we lost two fumbles,” Farmer said. “I was most disappointed with that although we did move the football well at times.”
Defensively, Peter Lawson had five solo stops and eight assists and also caused a fumble. Sam Cleary had three solo tackles and one assist. Dylan Collins finished with two solo stops, five assists and a pass break up.
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Rhett Roberts came up big once again with two solo tackles, a quarterback sack, five assists, a pass break up and a fumble recovery. Jakey Dunagan and Seth Harvey both had two tackles, six assists and a pass break up.
Farmer also praised the effort of Tyler Cullum for his work defensively.
“Our defense bailed us out Friday night and grew up in the process,” the coach said.
While the offense did not have its usual night, it still produced plenty of points to win. Blake Hammock rushed for 171 yards and two scores and 27 carries.
Lawson added 63 yards on eight rushes and quarterback Alex Hall connected on two passes for 30 yards. Dakota Collins finished with 46 yards and a touchdown on five carries.
“We are not always going to score 50 points so the defense will have to step up,” Farmer said. “Our defense was able to give our offense time to get on track. It was a big win for us to go on the road and to deal with adversity. We hadn’t had any all year so you don’t know how the players will react. We needed to be tested. We need to be battle tested because we have some very tough games coming up.”
Piedmont is off this Friday with a home region game against Robert Toombs the following week.
“We will certainly start planning for that game,” Farmer said. “We may look at some special teams work but we are going to go to work right away for Robert Toombs.”
After seven games, Farmer said his team is definitely ready for an open week.
“We are pretty healthy but we have some players who will definitely benefit from not having to play,” the coach said.
Stats vs. Edmund Burke
Offensive:
•Peter Lawson: 8 carries for 63 yards,
•Alex Hall: 8 carries for 17 yards, 2 TDs, 2-of-2 passing for 30 yards
•Blake Hammock: 27 carries for 171 yards and 2 TD’s, 1-of-1 passing for 27 yards.
•Dylan Collins: 1 reception for 11 yards, and a 2-point conversion reception
•Dakota Collins: 5 carries for 46 yards and 1 TD
•Sam Cleary: 2-of-4 on PATs
•Zach Benjamin: 1 reception for 27 yards
Defensive:
•Peter Lawson: 5 solos and 8 assists, 1 caused fumble
•Zach Benjamin: 2 solos and 4 assists
•Dylan Collins: 2 solos, 5 assists and 1 Pass Break Up
•Rhett Roberts: 2 solos, 1 quarterback sack, 5 assists, 1 pass break up and 1 fumble recovery
•Sam Cleary: 3 solos and 1 assist
•Tyler Cullum: 1 solo, 3 assists and 2 pass break ups
•Dakota Collins: 2 solos and 6 assists
•Jakey Dunagan: 2 solos, 6 assists and 1 pass break up
•Austin Corley: 3 assists
•Seth Harvey: 2 solos, 6 assists and 1 pass break up
•Garrett Richardson: 2 assists
•Daniel Leinweber: 2 assists
•Blake Hammock: 1 solo
Players of the Game:
•Blake Hammock, offense
•Rhett Roberts and Peter Lawson, defense